Yesterday was a bit prickly for a myriad of reasons. But, sometimes, the prickly part is the first part you see and feel. Sometimes the gut reaction is of disgust and/or despair. Dreams and goals are counter-intuitive of what reality is. There is a journey called grief. Some are in different stages - anger, disbelief, denial, acceptance. Some are bargaining. If I do this, then I can achieve/experience this _______. (Fill in the blank). Whatever stage I am at in my journey, the one question that I ask myself is about the present and the future. I know, I know. What happened to your inner yogi, Hopeful Hippie? The yogi in me focuses on the present always, but I also need to think about the time after the present. “How will this (thought/emotion/activity/choice) serve me now and serve me later?” Sometimes the answer is not clear cut. And that is when you need to dig deeper which is what I did yesterday with an upper body exercise. I was able to find sweetness through prickly. There was a refreshing attitude and a slice of heaven.
Who wants to get poked with reality that is painful? I’m certainly not the best volunteer for that task. I have been poked and prodded enough and I’m done. Frustrated. Angry. Pitiful. But..and there is always a but….there can be still be sweetness.
So my upper arm workout consisted of taking a prickly item with a crown and chopping off that crown. Ouch. I then twisted a circular device through this prickly item to the bottom of its core. My fingers were sore and my arm was a tad shaky, but I hit liquid gold. I poured that liquid gold into my cup, closed my eyes, and was back on the Island of Hope. Where there was no disease or dysfunction. Where my body could jump to “hip, hip, hooray”. Where there was kindness and respect.
Yesterday, I literally took the outward pokiness that I felt and swigged some hope. A beautiful pineapple reminded me that you have to work through the harder parts to get at the juice and fruit of life. Sometimes it is hard and you may cut your fingers a few times. Hopefully the cut is just superficial - easily sewn up so that you can truly say the struggle was worth the yellow gold of hope.